As Shillong reels under days of acute water scarcity, the Meghalaya Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department has sought a formal inquiry into the role of NHIDCL road construction in damaging a critical water pipeline, with the minister in charge asserting that action must follow strictly as per the inquiry report.
Minister in charge of PHE, Meghalaya, Marcuise N Marak said, “We are trying to request the government from the government level, enquiry should be conducted and action should be taken as per the inquiry report.” The minister underlined that the disruption was not a routine technical failure but a consequence of infrastructure work carried out over an existing pipeline.
Explaining the cause and complexity of the crisis, Marak said, “This has happened actually, you know well inside the NHIDCL constructed newly constructed road crore and the leakage was well inside the newly constructed NHIDCL road and it was very difficult to excavate to the point where the pipe is leak, so therefore, the department has no option but to go for the alternative line, around stretches of 300 meters new line has been created, pipes, have been laid for which it has taken sometime, I think al together till today, it has taken eight days.”
He added that repairing the damaged section was impossible due to its location beneath the highway. “So therefore new line has to be created because the earlier line which was broken and water was leakage inside could not be repaired at all, because of the NHIDCL work,” he said.
Marak pointed out that the incident occurred even as the PHE department was already in the process of pipe realignment due to highway construction. “This has happened at the same time, when PHE department is realigning the pipes because of the highway construction by NHIDCL, so fortunately, we have taken some NOCs and some permissions which whatever was required for laying the pipes, all alongside the road, otherwise it would have taken so long,” he said.
Acknowledging public hardship, the minister said, “So I understand people have suffered a lot, I would assure people that PHE department has taken a lot of pain, whole night officers were camping there, doing the work, they have not slept well till last one week and have been doing the work.”
He confirmed that restoration is now nearing completion. “So now, everything is restore, everything is completed, all the works are completed and we are hoping to release the water gradually after some time from today evening but full volume of water will be released by tomorrow,” Marak said.
Reiterating the cause, he stated, “The cause of the leakage as I say was because of the construction of road, the road was constructed above the pipes were laid and that pipe could not be excavated because it is well inside the NHIDCL constructed road, probably while constructing they might have touch the pipe to there and because of which the pipes had broken.”
He also flagged serious coordination lapses between agencies. “Yes I had already mentioned earlier that realignment pipes are happening and it was happening alongside the construction of roads, but then these portion where not completed that, but they have gone ahead and they have constructed and NHIDCL is provoking most of the time in somewhere else, some portion of the works,” he said.
Stressing on accountability, Marak added, “So our officers are on the jobs and time again, they are meeting and they are clearing whatever, doubts are there, so this portion was left and realignment was there and because of that it has happened, it has cause some serious communication gap between the same NHIDCL, NHIDCL should have taken strong measures and they should have inform the department before laying all this constructed roads.”
